Citigroup is admitting that a May hack cost cardholders millions of dollars.
On May tenth 3,400 accounts had at least $2.7 million stolen from them. The total number of accounts that were hacked is more than 360,000.
Citi officials claim they notified customers quickly, yet those notices weren’t sent out until June 3. So far 200,000 credit cards have been replaced by Citi.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are officially bankrupt. The team franchise tried to get a new television deal that could have kept it out of bankruptcy, but Major League Baseball blocked that deal.
This comes after a bitter court battle between the two owners. Frank McCourt was left as the owner, but he believes the blocked TV deal is an effort to force him to sell the LA Dodgers. McCourt vowed he wouldn’t do that, he thinks the bankruptcy will buy him time to get things turned around.
It was hoped the TV deal would bring the Dodgers $3 billion. Yes, they need $3 billion to stay alive. I think this is a sure sign that sports is way overvalued, you might says it’s a another economic bubble about to burst.
The Nature Genetics Journal reporting that the “lean gene” not only keeps people skinny but causes type 2 diabetes.
Conventional thinking by health officials is that obese (fat) and sedentary (lazy) people are the most at risk for type 2 diabetes (despite the fact that the majority of diabetics live in China and India, where there isn’t that many fat or lazy people).
A study of the IRS1 gene revealed that not only does it keep people skinny by burning up fat, but it also increases heart disease and type 2 diabetes by 20%. Scientists weren’t expecting that result. The study proves that just because you’re naturally skinny doesn’t mean you’re healthy.
The Lancet Journal reporting that despite efforts to stop diabetes, world rates have only gone up. There are now 347 million people considered diabetic.
The United States and Russia clam 36 million of those diabetics, but China and India beat the U.S. and Russia by 100 million. China and India have 138 million diabetics.
UN World Health Organization officials were not expecting such a high number of diabetics. They had estimated about 285 million, not 347 million that the study came up with.
Type 2 diabetes is the fastest growing form, and is always blamed on being fat and lazy. But there’s a problem with that reasoning: 138 million diabetics in China and India, where not that many people are fat or lazy!
Anyone who understands the diet of most people in China and India, and knows how hard they work, should question the standard reasons for getting type 2 diabetes. There must be something else going on to cause this explosion of diabetes.
This has really gone too far! CNN reports Transportation Security Administration agents forced a cancer stricken 95 year old woman to remove her adult diaper.
“My mother is very ill, she has a form of leukemia. She had a blood transfusion the week before, just to bolster up her strength for this travel.”-Jean Weber, daughter of victim of TSA
Agents said they thought they felt something in the diaper when they did a patdown. No sh*t Sherlock! Turns out the diaper was doing its job! Jean Weber cried because her ill mother ended up without underwear for the flight.
How can any self respecting person willingly do what TSA agents have to do? Not only does it violate the rights, and dignity of travelers, but it has to be humiliating for the TSA agents! If I were working for the TSA I would’ve quit a long time ago. So not only is the United States a police state, but it’s a sicko police state!
Last week the Pentagon presented Congress with a plan to provide African countries with up to $145 million in military aid. The aid, in money and equipment, is for so called counter terrorism operations.
The $145 million, to be split between several African countries, doesn’t compare to what just one country got last year. Yemen, on the Arabian Peninsula, got $155 million in aid last year, paid for by taxpayers. And this year the Pentagon wants give Yemen $200 million!
Out of the $145 million in military aid going to African countries, only $600,000 is for ‘human rights training’.
26 June 2011, an accident at the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant resulting in the expanding Missouri River flooding into the compound. The water hit the nuke plant’s electrical transformers, cutting off power.
Electricity is still needed to keep the spent fuel pools cool. Plant officials say they are now running on back up generators.
Forth Calhoun officials ordered the installation of a water filled artificial levee (berm). The Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not approve the artificial levee. At about 1:25 am, 26 June, workers broke the water filled berm, allowing the Missouri River to flood in.
This natural disaster is the latest bad news for the Fort Calhoun nuke plant. In April plans to refuel its reactors were halted, over concerns of flooding by the Missouri River. Then, on 07 June, a fire broke out in one of the reactor control rooms. An inspection two years ago revealed that plant operators were not properly prepared for a flood.
On Saturday, June 25, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision announced that all major international banks, and central banks (like the U.S. Federal Reserve) are going to increase their capital reserves.
This means they are going to hold onto more money and issue less loans. Some banks refer to capital reserves as putting their money to ‘rest’ (aka bank reserves, desired reserves).
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision refused to give a list of which banks will be holding back on their money. This is an indication that the major international, and central banks do not expect any short term improvement in the world economies.
The increase in capital reserves is to help banks handle monetary emergencies, like traditional “runs on banks”. Just how long does the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision think the economy will suck? The new tighter control on money will be implemented in phases, becoming fully in effect in 2018. Mmmm, it’s 2011 now, uh oh!
Idaho based Micron is reporting a drop in demand for computer chips. One semiconductor analyst calls it “anemic”.
Micron reports sales are down, even though profits are up 4%, from the previous quarter. How did they make a profit? Officially Micron calls it ‘reduction in manufacturing costs’. That means workers got laid off, in fact since 2008 more than 2000 Micron employees lost their jobs.
When you compare net revenues, year to year, Micron still lost money.
So what if Obama is actually going to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, they’re just going to be used somewhere else.
In response to continued attacks against Syrian police and army troops (three mass graves filled with hundreds of Syrian cops and soldiers have been found), and the fact that Turkey is allowing the build up of NATO forces on a Turkish air base, the Syrian government is massing troops along the Turkish border.
There are reports that Syrian forces attacked impromptu refugee camps along the border. The United States is warning Syria that their actions could escalate the situation (as if that isn’t what the U.S. wants).
“Unless the Syrian forces immediately end their attacks and their provocations that are not only now affecting their own citizens but (raising) the potential of border clashes, then we’re going to see an escalation of conflict in the area.”-Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State
The Syrian refugees fled into Turkey. Last week Turkey said it could handle the refugee situation, up to a point. A Turkish official said they could handle about 10,000 refugees, if the refugee situation escalated beyond that Turkey would have to take action (the official didn’t specify what “action” would be taken).
According to a BBC report, Turkey (a member of the U.S. led NATO) is now massing troops on the border.